A mom in real life as well as on the small screen, Up All Night actress Christina Applegate graces the cover of the April issue of Scholastic Parent & Child. The funny mama opens up about her competitive approach to childbirth, and reveals why her 1-year-old daughter Sadie Grace may just be her toughest critic.

On childbirth: “I didn’t mention this to anyone else while it was going on, but I turned pushing into a competition. In the back of my head, I needed to be the person who pushed a baby out the fastest in history."

On her funny baby girl: "She makes me laugh every day - she's a funny little kid and a happy girl. She'll stand on a little box in our room and press her musical bear until she finds the song she wants. Then she grooves, dances and stomps around for 20 minutes. She has the best time all by herself. Martyn [her fiancé Martyn LeNoble] and I love watching that - it makes us laugh really hard."

On her daughter, the comedy critic: “She loves it when I imitate a monkey.... And you try to use it again and again, but then by the third time, she doesn’t find it funny anymore....Sadie is a much harder critic than the public.”

Scholastic.com

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"I consider my past as a fashionable part of the path that led to where I am today. ‘Elegance is the privilege of old age’ ~Victoria Beckham